New Year and Life changes and goes on...

Another, year and another chapter in my life; changed this past week....
Chuck, of my younger brothers came up with his youngest son, Mitch, to visit and make a change for all of us..... Life goes on as things change, it has often been said that
" The only thing in life; that does not change is GOD, and change itself...."

It went something like this.... I had a 1959 Studebaker Pickup Truck, since 1975... I was an original "Hot Rodder".... Going to High School in the late '50s... I used to go to Drag races, where "Big Daddy" Don Garlits ran his Swamp Rat roadsters, in FLA.... He ran in Oldsmar which was just 26 miles north of my home...

I was a poor white boy, and when my step father allowed me to get a car in 1958, He said " You get it, you pay for it, and when it brakes down you fix it.... don't bother me..." So I became a car buff... A prince of power, with a part time after school job @ 50 cents an hour..... So you can see that I was well to do .... And cute too...

I finally got a '49 Cadillac two door sedan, in 1959, and I was really stepping in high cotton.. BTW; that was I thought I had it made, in the shade.... Well It took some fixing up, but it was worth it at least in my feeble teen age mind.... It had an OHV V8, and a 120 MPH speedometer.... I had to repaint it { It was black} in the dark after work, replace the transmission, with the help of one of my uncles and next younger brother in Jax, then repaired various other parts as needed or required... BTW; I still have the original combination wrench set I purchased at NAPA in Pinellas Park, FL.1958 ... Then I got bolder and obtained an aluminum Four Barrel Intake manifold, which was installed on the engine....

This really got me into some respect with the motor heads at SPHS, and I thought I was the best thing since sliced bread... On the social scale, I was slow or did not realize that I was cute, so except for MYF @ Christ Methodist Church; where we held actives, and games with other HS kids, and even gave some really nice girls rides home, ect.... I just never got beyond an occasional kiss... So my world was cars, not really any dates or such..... BTW; If I had it to do over again, things would have been different.... Guess you would say I was shy, and not out going....

Well I wanted to set the stage so you could appreciate the big picture.... I did get married six years after HS, to a wonderful gal who knew I was intelligent and cute too and we raised four sons, all of whom are married and have children of their own...

I had other times and experiences with fast cars, and so we jump back up to date.... My nephew Mitch, graduated last year and now plays football at a college out in Iowa.... His dad one of my brothers, used to have a body shop, and is well versed in auto restore and such.... So since I, do not really have the desire or time to restore the Studebaker truck, I gave it to Mitch, for a graduation present.... They came up with a trailer and hauled the truck back to FLA.... Another chapter closed!!

So you see this was the end of an other year, and an end to the Hot Rod chapter in my life... We will cover more of this story in my up coming book, on my road of life... You can also see some of it on www.curezone.com .... Look under blogs, by kerminator, neat stuff.....